Government Funding

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, Republicans are shining a spotlight on the reckless taxing-and-spending spree that Washington Democrats are writing behind closed doors. The radical left is pushing in all their chips. They want to use this terrible but temporary pandemic as a Trojan horse for permanent socialism. And President Biden, who ran as a unifying moderate, is either powerless to stop them or does not wish to.

An avalanche--an avalanche--of crushing tax hikes that would hurt families and would help China; a government power grab over more of Americans' healthcare decisions, childcare choices, family finances, and daily lives; trillions upon trillions more in government spending when families are already facing inflation--none of this, of course, will get a single Republican vote in either Chamber.

Democrats have not even consulted us. They haven't tried to earn our votes. From the start, they have planned to use a party-line, fast- track process to ram through the Senate this version of their vision of America.

That is why Republicans will not help this unified Democratic government with its basic duty to raise the debt ceiling. This could not be simpler. If they want to tax, borrow, and spend historic sums of money without our input, they will have to raise the debt limit without our help.

This is the reality. I have been saying this very clearly since July, and I think our Democratic colleagues are finally getting it because now they are fumbling for bogus excuses. They remain confident they can spend trillions of dollars to remake the entire economy in a couple of weeks, but, supposedly, they just cannot clear this much smaller procedural hurdle without Republican help. Really? Give me a break.

Earlier this year, Senate Democrats specifically requested and received extra flexibility around the reconciliation process. They have every procedural tool they need to promptly advance a separate stand- alone piece of legislation addressing the debt limit without a single Republican vote. Our colleagues have plenty of time to get this done. It is laughable--laughable--to hear some Democrats claiming they simply don't have enough time.

Last month, Democrats introduced a sweeping budget resolution on August 9 and passed it before sunrise on August 11--3 days. Our Democratic colleagues have about a month--a month--plenty of time to do their job as a unified government and protect the full faith and credit of the United States.

The Democratic chairman of the House Budget Committee admitted last weekend that Democrats could--could--tackle the debt limit alone, but they just don't want to. Some Senate Democrats have said similar things. This may be inconvenient for them, but it is totally possible. And this Democratic government must not manufacture an avoidable crisis for the sake of their own convenience.

Senate Democrats know what they need to do. Let me lay it out. They will need to write a short resolution amending their previous budget resolution with new debt limit instructions. You have to take that to the Budget Committee, which will probably deadlock, so they will vote to discharge it like they have done for other bills and nominations.

Then a vote to proceed on the floor, a limited vote-a-rama, and a vote on final passage. And then, once the budget has been amended, House and Senate Democrats will use the same fast-track process on a short and simple bill to actually raise the debt limit.

This won't be a multiweek process. It is probably about a week of the Senate's time or a little more. And they won't have to wait on their reckless taxing-and-spending spree either. They can move a stand-alone debt limit bill all on its own.

I understand our Democratic colleagues may feel inconvenienced by this. I understand this may slightly delay their partisan bill, but that is a complaint. That is a complaint, not an excuse.

We have a unified Democratic government that has decided to govern alone. They cannot put partisan ambitions ahead of basic duties. The party-line authors of this reckless taxing-and-spending spree will be the party-line owners of raising the debt limit.

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